Literature syllabus, dot point by dot point
Every dot point in the VIC Literature study design, in syllabus order, with a focused answer for each. Open any dot point for the answer, exam-style questions and links to related points.
Unit 3: Adaptations and transformations
Unit overview →How does an adaptation function as a deliberate interpretation of its source, and how do you analyse the reading it advances?
How do the views and values of a source and its adaptation differ, and what does the change in cultural moment do to them?
How do the conventions of a particular form and medium produce meaning, and what is lost or gained when a text crosses into another?
How does moving a story into a new form or medium change the meaning a reader or viewer makes of it?
How does an adaptation draw on, echo and answer the text that came before it, and how do you read those intertextual relationships?
Unit 3: Developing interpretations
Unit overview →How do you build an initial interpretation of a text grounded in its views, values and the world that produced it?
How does a second, supplementary reading deepen, complicate or challenge the interpretation you first built?
How do you balance your own interpretation, the textual evidence and a different reading into one sustained, defensible argument?
How does the historical, social and cultural context in which a text was produced shape the interpretation you build of it?
Unit 4: Close analysis
Unit overview →How do you move from the detail of selected passages to a sustained interpretation of a whole text?
How do you identify and analyse the literary features of a passage and name them with precise metalanguage?
How do different literary perspectives and critical lenses change the interpretation a reader builds of a text?
How is the close analysis examination structured, and how do you build a response across the set passages under time?
Unit 4: Creative responses to texts
Unit overview →How does a written reflective commentary explain and justify the choices made in a creative response?
How do you analyse and then adopt the voice, point of view and stylistic features of a set text in your own creative writing?
How do you write a creative response that genuinely reflects an understanding of the original text's features and concerns?
How does understanding the views and values of a set text shape the interpretive choices you make in a creative response?